In a microcosm of the Texans’ (mis)fortunes on the defensive side of the ball this season, Brice McCain started in place of an injured Johnathan Joseph (hamstring/groin) at right cornerback in last Sunday’s 24-10 win at Tennessee and … suffered a fracture that required surgery the next day to insert a screw in his foot.

“We have big-time challenges,” said Texans head coach Gary Kubiak, who’s placed six defensive players on injured reserve this season, “but we’ve got to have some young guys step to the plate. This time of year, usually that’s extremely important because everybody’s got some injuries and got some people beat up, and you just need to stay the course.”

With McCain down and both Joseph (who’s missed the last two games) and reserve cornerback Alan Ball (inactive last Sunday due to a foot injury) out, second-year corners Roc Carmichael and Brandon Harris saw extensive time against the Titans, notching 10 tackles and three pass breakups between them.

But playing against Jake Locker and the NFL’s 14th-ranked offense is one thing (the Texans forced a franchise-record six turnovers, albeit while allowing 265 yards passing); staring across the line of scrimmage at Tom Brady and the league’s highest-scoring team as the Texans will be on Monday night in Foxboro is another.

While all NFL teams are battered and bruised by this time of year – for what it’s worth, the Patriots (15) and Texans (19) combined to list 34 players on Thursday’s participation report – the hurts just keep on coming for Houston’s defense.

Three-fourths of the starting linebackers in the Texans’ 3-4 – Brian Cushing, Bradie James and Brooks Reed – missed last Sunday’s game; while James (hamstring) and Reed (groin) will return this season, Cushing won’t, having been placed on season-ending IR with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in October.

The secondary has fallen victim to a rash of injuries as well.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, as proven by the fact that on Tuesday, Stanford Routt, deemed so bad in Kansas City the lowly Chiefs waived him last month, was brought in for a tryout and signed on the spot.

Page 2 of 2 - “We’ve been hit at a couple of positions physically,” Kubiak acknowledged during a conference call with the New England media on Thursday.

Still, the Texans have continued to win, trumping their 5-0 start by recovering from their lone loss, 42-24 to Green Bay on Oct. 14, by matching the six-game winning streak the Patriots will carry into Monday night’s game.

“I think teams learn how to gain, I guess, confidence that, hey, we can handle situations,” said Kubiak. “Hey, we’re down two players this week. These two guys are going to step in and they’re going to play their (butt) off, everybody else is going to pick up the slack, we’re going to work through this.

“I think that’s something you learn to do as an organization. Instead of finding reasons maybe why you’re not successful you keep plugging and find reasons why you’re going to be successful. I think it’s a frame of mind and it’s something that you’ve got to work really hard at to develop within your organization.”

Given all the moving parts, though, is it any wonder that coordinator Wade Phillips’ defense has suffered?

In three weeks’ time, the overall defense dropped in ranking from second to sixth; the pass defense has free fallen from third to 19th during that time.

Yet the Texans are 11-1, tied with the Atlanta Falcons for the best record in the NFL today.

“Trying to work through those things,” Kubiak said of the injuries, “that’s part of this business.”